Editor's note: Sporting News takes a look at memorable Super Bowl plays through the eyes of those directly involved in making NFL history. Thursday: Bob Lilly's NFL-record 29-yard sack on Bob Griese in Super Bowl VI. Coming Friday: Emmitt Smith's smash-mouth play against the Bills.

One of the most important plays in the Dallas Cowboys' 50-plus years involved a sack for a Super Bowl record 29-yard loss; linebackers known as Meg, Wanda and Sarah; and two massive defensive linemen doing the Limbo ... and maybe four doing the Double Limbo.

Before getting to all of that, a history lesson: The Cowboys entered Super Bowl VI against the Miami Dolphins in desperate need of a win. They had been a great team for years but lacked a signature victory to give them a championship, a new identity to replace the “can’t win the big game” label. They lost the NFL championship game in 1966, the Ice Bowl in 1967 and Super Bowl V in 1971. Collectively, they hated losing at least as much than they loved winning. They couldn’t handle the thought of going home again without the trophy.

This time, they went home with the trophy, and the Cowboys on their Doomsday Defense point to one play, Bob “Mr. Cowboy” Lilly’s sack of Bob Griese at the end of the first quarter, as the catalyst in their 24-3 victory over Miami. It remains the only time a team has been held without a touchdown in Super Bowl history.

Even with their “can’t win the big game" label, the team entered the game confident it could win, and the lineup justified that feeling. The Cowboys had nine future Hall of Famers on the roster: Herb Adderley, Lance Allworth, Mike Ditka, Forrest Gregg, Bob Hayes, Bob Lilly, Roger Staubach, Rayfield Wright and Mel Renfro, one on the sidelines in coach Tom Landry and another in the owner’s box in Tex Schramm.

Doomsday Defense dancing

The Cowboys had three goals on defense: Gang tackle running back Larry Csonka, shut down wide receiver Paul Warfield and harass quarterback Bob Griese enough that he left the pocket.

“Coach Landry said, ‘Griese’s a very difficult quarterback,’ ” says defensive tackle Jethro Pugh. “We want to make him go back to his old ways, because he was a scrambler, and all of a sudden he was a pure pocket passer. The thing that was stressed to the defensive line, make him go back to his old ways.”

The play came on third-and-9. Middle linebacker Lee Roy Jordan was responsible for getting the signal from defensive coordinator Ernie Stautner and relaying the call to his teammates. Safety Cliff Harris knew the signals, too, and before this play he saw Stautner give it: Arms crossed in front of him. That gesture told the Cowboys to run a scheme they called, “Special.” The full name was, Outside 4-3 42-48. The Outside 4-3 part meant the ends would line up on the outside. The 42-48 part meant the defensive backs would play double coverage on the two receivers, and the three linebackers would cover the running backs and tight end.

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But none of that decided the play, or at least none of that alone. What decided the play was the fact the Cowboys’ Doomsday Defense loved to dance. The defensive linemen had two basic stunts: Limbo and Cha-cha. When they ran Cha-cha, the two inside tackles ran around each other. When they ran Limbo, the defensive end and defensive tackle swapped spots after the snap. Double Limbo meant both sets of ends and tackles swapped spots.

In the 40 years since the play, whether the Cowboys ran a Limbo or Double Limbo has faded into history like the last chords of disco. It was, at the very least, a Limbo between Lilly and tackle George Andrie, and it was unquestionably effective. All four linemen were at one point or another running free in the pocket.

Behind these dancing men were a bunch of ladies. Today, most, if not all, teams call the middle linebacker Mike, the strong side linebacker Sam and the weakside linebacker Will. The Cowboys called them Meg, Sarah and Wanda. They covered the running backs and tight end. As the linemen danced into the backfield and the ladies did their work, the Cowboys’ defensive backs blanketed the receivers.

Harris had inside coverage on Warfield, the primary receiver. “Griese was trying to go to Warfield, I had his (butt) covered,” Harris says. “When I saw he was going to throw that route, I zoomed over there to intercept it, and whoa, he pulled it down. I had him trapped, and Bob pulled the ball down and had to run. He went to the right side, and Cornell (Green) had his guy covered.”

Don’t jump, unless it’s for joy

Defensive end Larry Cole was the first to get into Griese’s face, and all these years later, he knows why he didn’t get the sack. “I can still hear my coach, Ernie Stautner, yelling in my ear: ‘You just don’t jump.’”

But Cole jumped, anticipating a Griese pass. That allowed Griese to turn away.

“If I hadn’t jumped, I probably would’ve sacked him,” he says. That’s true, but Cole’s jump caused Griese to turn away. Again and again, Cole and Lilly cornered Griese, and again and again, he spun back and away. “My biggest thing was making sure he was to my inside, just keep him in the pocket or in the middle of the field,” Cole says. “Have you been to the rodeo? It was like herding cattle. Corral him, keep him in the middle. That’s what it felt like.”

Ron Widby, the punter, watched from the sideline. He thought of a different animal. “It looked like somebody chasing a chicken. When they turned, he turned. When they went one way, he went the same way,” he said. “It was kind of funny.”

The game was in New Orleans, and the crowd was mixed between Dallas and Miami fans. All of them were stunned, some happily, others not. “It was like a silence,” Cole says. “There were a lot of Miami people there. But it was like, ‘wow.’ Like, ‘thud.’ ”

The sack came on the last play of the first quarter. Dallas led, 3-0. The score the rest of the game: 21-3, for a final of 24-3. “That was a pretty big play. (The Dolphins) were playing pretty good defense,” says Ike Thomas, a rookie defensive back who was on the sidelines for the play. “Tom (Landry) figured them out. And they went to work on them. Tom was the master at second half. He could come out and pull them out. It was really amazing to watch them work and call defenses.”

All the bad labels were gone. Next Year’s Champions were finally defending champions. “I am so proud of it, and so glad we were able to do that. That particular team set the bar for every Dallas Cowboy team since that time,” says Jordan, the middle linebacker. “We set the bar that you play great defense, have a good passing game, have a good running game.”

As triumphant and historically important as the win was, the Cowboys were more relieved than excited.

“It was like the monkey off of your back. We finally did it,” Pugh says. “Winning is not all that great. It’s good, but it’s not all that great. You win because you don’t want to lose, because if you lose, you just feel awful. You win because you don’t want to go through the agony. It’s like a final exam. Thee main thing is, you don’t want to flunk it.”

Thanks to dancing linemen, a bunch of ladies in the linebacking corps and tight coverage in the secondary, the Cowboys more than passed this test. They aced it. Because of a signature play, the Cowboys had a signature win.

Coming this week

Friday: Super Bowl XXVIII. Give it to Emmitt Smith. Give it to him again. And again and again. By running the same smash-mouth play over and over, the Cowboys beat the Bills into submission.

Monday: Super Bowl XXIII. If the 10-yard touchdown pass from Joe Montana to John Taylor weren’t so beautiful, it would have been a disaster.